Category: nature

  • A rockhound looks at the church

    two pails of rocket

    I love rocks. Since I was a small child, I have gone  through many phases of collecting and working with stones and minerals. 

    I can’t imagine how many shiny stones my mother must have dug out of my pants pockets on laundry days. If I’m honest, it can still happen today.

    Rock collectors range from the casual to the obsessed, from the small child bringing a few shiny stones home in their pocket to those who travel the world to collect the perfect piece.

    A collector might collect pieces that catch their eye while out walking. Someone else might spend vast sums of money purchasing rare and unique specimens. One person might bring home common pieces, while another might collect only a particular type. Everyone’s tastes and circumstances are different.

    I have found that rock collectors are very willing to talk about what they collect and often share their collections. I have had great conversations with perfect strangers on beaches, gravel bars, or even in the landscaped sections of parking lots about rocks. The rock bug seems to bite early in life and never goes away for most people.

    A conundrum for rock collectors (or collectors of anything else, for that matter) is “what to do with them when you have brought them home?” How do you display them? How do you make room for more?

    Of course, there will never be enough room. There will always be more or bigger specimens to collect. The variety of stone is virtually inexhaustible. Many are found in only one location worldwide. Others are common, but they come in an infinite array of colors, shapes, and patterns.

    Unlike a rock collection, there is a collection that is guaranteed to be complete in time. That is the church. I don’t mean the outward manifestation of denominations and groups, or buildings, or even the gathering of believers. I am referring to everyone throughout time that God has ordained to be saved.

    True believers are a gift to Christ from the Father.

    “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” John 17:6-10

    If we are a gift from the perfect Father to his precious Son, we will not be lost. Everyone, from everywhere and in any era included in the gift, will be saved.

    God won’t be displaying us in a basket. We will be transformed into everything he made us to be and will be in His presence for eternity to come.

    He elected His followers before the beginning of time to complete His work in them.

    For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:28-29

    Believers are chosen by a perfect God for a holy, eternal purpose. My piles of rocks might be pretty enough, but they will never compare with the wonder of the assembled, glorified church in the presence of their God.

    I can hardly wait to see it.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

    Kevin

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  • Out of the Blue – When the unexpected happens

    merlin in crabapple tree

    The robin was suddenly smacked with a bolt out of the blue. A  merlin (a type of small falcon) dropped, seemingly out of nowhere, and knocked it out of the air. They both hit the ground with a thud in front of me, and there was a brief flurry of feathers.

    The strike must have been a little off target as the robin flew away while the merlin flew up into the nearby crabapple tree. It sat there for a few moments, looking a little stunned.

    Score: Robins: one, Merlins: nil. This time.

    Sometimes, life can be like that. We are cruising along, living life as usual, when some major problem hits us out of the blue. There is no warning at all, at least none that we noticed.

    It can come as a job loss, an illness, a marital breakdown, a death in the family, an economic collapse, or any of ten thousand or more different scenarios. Whatever the problem, it leaves us shaken and stunned.

    We wonder what happened. We wonder where God is in the midst of it all. We wonder how, or even if, we will survive.

    We begin to realize that we aren’t as much in control as we had imagined. In truth, there is very little that we do control. We’re not the center of the universe, and not everything falls under our purview. 

    That’s actually a good realization to have, even if we came to it the hard way.

    Jesus spoke on that subject.

    “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:25-31

    Remember when times of testing come (and they will), God is in control. He knew about it before it happened, even if it seems out of the blue to you. 

    We can trust Him, no matter what we face. The outcome might seem uncertain to us, but the one who holds the stars in His hands has our backs.

    Even when circumstances are hard, God is good.

    To paraphrase a Bobby McFerrin song,

    Here’s a little song I wrote

    You might want to sing it note for note

    Don’t worry, trust Jesus.

    In every life we have some trouble

    When you worry you make it double

    Don’t worry, trust Jesus

    Don’t worry, trust Jesus.

    Until next time, no matter what comes your way, remember that God is there for you.

    Kevin

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